Speeches Boost Booker's Income

Democratic Senate Candidate Makes Available 15 Years of Tax Returns

NEWARK—Mayor Cory Booker's income has grown steadily since he assumed leadership of the state's largest city, fueled by lucrative speaking engagements across the nation.

Mr. Booker, now a Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, earned $472,571 last year, more than 10 times what he earned in 1998 when he first held elected office as a Municipal Council member in Newark, according to 15 years of federal tax returns made available to reporters Friday.

The two-term mayor's salary grew over the period and peaked at $152,438 in 2011, the records show. But the bulk of the jump in overall income came from outside speaking fees to Mr. Booker—a surrogate for President Barack Obama who counts celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey as friends.

Mr. Booker earned more than $1.3 million in public-speaking fees from 1998 to 2012, the returns show. Many of the speaking engagements were at universities and foundations, while others were corporately sponsored—by companies such as MetLife and General Mills, according to a list provided by his campaign.

The mayor is running in a special election Oct. 16 for the open Senate seat in New Jersey. His Republican challenger, former Bogota, N.J., Mayor Steve Lonegan, has sought to make Mr. Booker's finances a campaign issue. He criticized Mr. Booker for originally failing to disclose shares valued between $1 million and $5 million in Waywire, an online startup he helped to found. Mr. Booker's Senate disclosure form was amended in July to reflect the stake.

Mr. Booker's campaign announced Friday he was leaving Waywire's board and donating his shares to charity to remove any concerns about him benefiting from the company, spokesman Kevin Griffis said.

ENLARGE

Mr. Lonegan has criticized the Booker campaign for not earlier releasing details of his finances. On Friday, his campaign called the amount earned for paid speeches "appalling."

"New Jersey cannot afford to allow Mayor Booker to take his failed policies to the U.S. Senate," spokesman Will Gattenby said.

The returns released Friday document one aspect of Mr. Booker's transformation from a local city official to a national name. When he first began his own speaking firm LA Jordan Enterprises in 2002, for example, Mr. Booker took in $775 and lost $5,508 in startup costs. In 2003, he deducted $1,130 in student loan interest from his taxes.

The speaking income picked up after Mr. Booker's successful mayoral run in 2006.

In his peak year, 2011, Mr. Booker made 24 public speeches that earned him $416,304, including a $10,000 honorarium from Stanford University, the records show.

Some Newark leaders have criticized Mr. Booker's national travel, arguing he spends too much time outside a city where 26% of residents live below the poverty line and crime persists. In a 10-day period that ended Wednesday, the city recorded 10 murders.

"People have gotten the sense that he's away," said Jonathan Wharton, an assistant professor of political science at Stevens Institute of Technology, who has studied the Booker administration.

Mr. Booker has said that his travel has helped raised Newark's profile and brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in philanthropy to the city, including $100 million to its public schools from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"If you look across the board, the mayor's leadership of Newark has made Newark a better place to live," Mr. Griffis said. "The travel that he's done has helped to bring money back to Newark."

Mr. Booker also increased his philanthropy while in office. Mr. Booker donated $619,253 in income from 2004 through this year so far, much of it derived from speaking fees, according to his returns and figures from his campaign.

If he wins the special election, Mr. Booker would stop making paid appearances, according to U.S. Senate rules, Mr. Griffis said.

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